cult

The definition of a cult is a group of people with extreme dedication to a certain leader or set of beliefs that are often viewed as odd by others, or is an excessive and misplaced admiration for someone or something, or is something that is popular among a certain segment of society.

People who follow a creepy pseudo-religious leader who makes them believe that their salvation lies in giving him money are an example of a cult.

When a particular famous killer on death row has a strong following, this is an example of a cult following.

The Rocky Horror Picture show is an example of a cult film.

cult

a system of religious worship or ritual

a quasi-religious group, often living in a colony and typically with a charismatic leader who indoctrinates members with beliefs regarded as unorthodox or extremist

devoted attachment to, or extravagant admiration for, a person, principle, or lifestyle, esp. when regarded as a fad: the cult of nudism

The term has a positive connotation for groups of art, music, writing, fiction, and fashion devotees, but a negative connotation for new religious, extreme political, questionable therapeutic, and pyramidal business groups.

Sentence Examples

The nurse's assertion about there being some sort of cult made more sense.

The cult of St Maurice and the Theban legion is found in Switzerland (where two places bear the name in Valais, besides St Moritz in Grisons), along the Rhine, and in north Italy.

Frazer's latest view is that he is the old cult associate of Diana of Aricia (to whom he is related as Attis to Cybele or Adonis to Venus), the mythical predecessor or archetype of the kings of the grove.

Meanwhile he received a careful education at Lorenzo's brilliant humanistic court under such men as Angelo Poliziano, the classical scholar, Pico della Mirandola, the philosopher and theologian, the pious Marsilio Ficino who endeavoured to unite the Platonic cult with Christianity and the poet Bernardo Dovizio Bibbiena.